Bott, Furmint “Csontos” Cheap

Bott, Furmint “Csontos”

The importer of today’s wine uses the term “New Old World” to describe regions like Tokaj, in Northeastern Hungary. Tokaj is one of the oldest wine appellations in the world, and yet, apart from maybe having sampled one of its sweet, botrytis-influenced aszú wines, no one talks much about it. A dry rendition of Tokaj’s native Furmint grape, like this masterful single-vineyard bottling from Bott, is still uncharted territory for most—but there’s a renaissance afoot. Smart sommeliers are adding dry Furmint to their lists, because with each new vintage, new-generation vintners like József and Judit Bodó take the variety to new heights. In fact, we really can’t regard these wines as undiscovered novelties anymore—what’s in the glass is simply too good. This 2020 stands toe-to-toe with all-time greats from Alsace, Austria, even Burgundy, and its makers only produced their first commercial vintage in 2005. Lovers of minerality, age-worthy structure, and aromatic intrigue: Your new favorite Old World white has arrived! 

To repeat: dry Furmint belongs in the most select white-wine company, period. The wines from this region draw on more than 1,200 years of history, and their makers not only have a noble variety to work with but a mineral-rich patchwork of soils that includes silt, iron-rich clay, and, in most instances, a volcanic substrate. There are more than 400 officially recognized single vineyard sites (what the French call crus) in an appellation of just 7,000 hectares. When they embarked on their journey to make their own wines in Tokaj, Judit and József sought out the best-possible vineyards available, eventually obtaining parcels in a classified site called “Teleki,” among others. “Csontos” is another single parcel in the couple’s small collection of vineyards, one which József was so thrilled to discover “he could not sleep at night.”

Bott (Judit’s maiden name) is as hands-on and artisanal as wine gets: the vineyards (mostly Furmint and some Hárslevelü) are all cultivated manually, and the family conducts a rigorous hand-sorting of all fruit at harvest time. The small winery is outfitted with an antique wooden press and mostly used, 200-liter Hungarian oak barrels, in which Judit carries out spontaneous, native-yeast fermentations over the course of six to eight weeks. This long, cold fermentation coaxes out more texture and complexity in the finished wine, which is readily evident in the glass. All these fermentations essentially finish when they finish, which means that some years’ wines contain more residual sugar than others. The 2020 contains about 4.5 grams/liter of sugar—enough to notice but not enough to keep the wine from finishing dry.

As beautiful as the texture is, there’s also a wonderfully taut, nervy quality to this 2020 that bodes well for aging (10+ years in bottle is not out of the question). The cool climate of Tokaj, and the physiology of the Furmint grape—whose naturally high acidity makes it a perfect candidate for late-harvest sweet wines—makes for a racy, floral white loaded with energy. In the glass, it’s a deep yellow-gold moving to hints of green at the rim, with heady aromas of peach, apricot, lavender, sweet spices, wet rocks, and dried wildflowers. It is medium-plus in body, with a succulent, layered feel—as well as the slightest kiss of residual sugar lending viscosity. Nevertheless, it remains firmly in the “dry” camp, like many great Pinot Gris and Riesling wines from Alsace, and one’s first instinct is to pair it with something spicy and aromatic like the Thai-style ground chicken dish in the attached recipe. It’s worth repeating that this is a serious white wine: Serve it at 45-50 degrees in all-purpose white wine stems or perhaps something a little larger, to allow for more aeration. You might use it as a “ringer” you sneak in alongside some other, more familiar Old World greats. You’ll find that it acquits itself quite well. Enjoy!